Archive for the tag “FREE”

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension for the first ever Seedy Sunday in Ithaca! Bring your extra seeds to swap and share with others – they can be home-saved seeds or purchased seeds that you have in surplus. Plus talks and workshops on seed saving and community seed libraries. Free event!

11:00 am – 11:30 am: Screening of the film Seeds of Freedom, featuring environmental activist Vandana Shiva The film charts the story of seed from its roots at the heart of traditional, diversity-rich farming systems across the world, to being transformed into a powerful commodity, used to monopolize the global food system. Seeds of Freedom seeks to challenge the idea that large-scale, industrial agriculture is the only means by which we can feed the world. In tracking the story of seed it becomes clear how the corporate agenda has driven the takeover of seed in order to make vast profit and control of the global food system.

11:30 am – 12:15 pm: Seed Saving for Beginners (and children!) Learn the basics of getting started with seed saving and get some hands-on experience in seed cleaning. This workshop will empower you to start saving your own seeds this year! Learn how to make Magic Seed Wands for children, and how to construct seed cleaning tools from recycled materials. Presented by Sean Dembrosky of Edible Acres http://www.edibleacres.org/index.htm

12:30 pm – 1:15 pm: Advanced Seed Saving and Selection Techniques We’ve all seen tomato blossoms turning to seed-laden fruits, but have you ever seen a parsnip or carrot plant blossom and go to seed? Come learn about biennial life cycles of root crops and the art and science (mostly the former!) of growing them on to the seed-producing stage. Learn about selection, overwintering of the first year roots, replanting in spring, flowering, seed harvesting and drying. Bring any and all questions related to seed and feel free to share what you’ve learned from your garden, as well! Presented by Petra Page-Mann of Fruition Seeds http://fruitionseeds.com/

1:30 pm – 2:15 pm: Restrictions on Saving Seed in the EU In the US, we are very fortunate that there currently are no restrictions on saving seed to sell or share with others. However, in the European Union, it’s a vastly different situation, with prohibitive registration fees and tight controls over who is allowed to produce seed. Much of this legislation has been driven by the multi-national agriculture companies in order to protect their profits and this has spurred a lively resistance movement in the EU for “Seed Sovereignty”. Presented by Chrys Gardener, CCE staff and former manager of the Irish Seed Savers Association http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm: Roundtable Discussion on Seed Saving Join us for an open discussion on seed saving techniques and anything else to do with seeds! All are welcome to bring questions, tips, and ideas. Discussion leaders include experienced seed savers Tim Springston of Oxbow Farm http://www.farmhack.net/wiki/oxbow-farm, Petra Mann-Page and Matthew Goldfarb of Fruition Seeds http://fruitionseeds.com/, and Chrys Gardener, CCE staff.

In the spirit of increasing community resilience White Hawk Ecovillage is hosting the “Greater Ithaca Skill Share” on Sunday, Nov. 18th!

The event is free and activities for children will be available and supported.

It will be semi-structured and will offer a morning session of predetermined skills and an open-space afternoon session to let our community members share a skill they love. So come prepared to learn and if you’ve got a skill to share come prepared to teach!

If you do come please make sure to bring:
– weather appropriate clothing (some activities will be outdoors)
– a water bottle
– a dish to pass
– eating ware and utensils
– cloth or clothing of natural fabric to dye (if you’re interested)
– a skill to share, if you’re feeling inspired

There is a hope to make this a recurrent event (seasonally, semi-annually or annually) and if you’re interested in seeing some other skills represented that weren’t or want to help organize future Skill Share events we’ll be gathering names and ideas for the future.

Please feel free the forward on the poster to other friends, family and listservs, there are paper copies posted around Ithaca, Danby, and Brooktondale/Caroline, also our website is updated with the event

We hope to see you for all or part of the day and if not, sometime soon down the road!

Teresa and Jeremy, active participants in the Share Tompkins community, just installed a “Little Free Library” in front of their house! It’s an awesome way to share books with your neighbors. Here’s what Teresa has to say…

Little Free Libraries

The Little Free Libraries were started in Wisconsin in late 2010 as a way of promoting literacy and community through the use of small, publically accessible book exchanges. When my husband and I recently went back to Wisconsin for a friend’s wedding, we found ourselves charmed by the variety and number of Little Free Libraries in our old neighborhood, and decided to bring a little of that magic back to Ithaca with us.

Building

We spent some time thinking about how to build a weathertight yet accessible little box, but after looking at the plans available at their website and considering our meager construction skill, we decided to buy one made from recycled materials. However, someone with more time and ability than me could certainly put one together in a weekend or two from any combination of found, recycled, or purchased materials. Most of the ones we’ve seen are about the size of a small laundry basket, with a door to keep out the elements. One of the cleverer designs I’ve seen is actually the next-nearest Library – a repurposed phone kiosk just outside Syracuse University’s Library and Information Science department. Photo here

Location

We live on a busy street with a fair amount of foot, car, and bike
traffic, so we didn’t need to look farther than our own front yard. But other libraries are located in a wide variety of public and private places – outside of businesses, homes, and schools.

Books

We’re book fiends, and always have a stack of books to be passed along to other readers. Our Little Library is new, but I hope that it will become a neighborhood resource for exchanging beloved titles.

If you’d like to browse the Library and trade some books, or if you want a library of your own and want to see it in person, please stop by 1039 Hanshaw Rd. to check it out!

Don’t forget, this Friday, 4-8pm at Congo Square Market at Southside Community Center, we’ll be hosting a Really Really Free Market. Bring stuff to give away, or just bring an empty tote bag and fill it up. I know we’re planning on bringing a lot of stuff ourselves, including housewares and office supplies – come take it so we don’t have to bring it back home!

Ready to share? Come on down to the Congo Square Market to get some food, check out local vendors, and share with your neighbors! In the Share Tompkins Really Really Free Market area, everything is free!

How it works: There will be tables set up where you can drop off your stuff. All are welcome to take whatever they want on a first-come, first-serve basis. This is an opportunity to help one another meet our needs while reducing waste and helping the environment!

All left over items will be donated, but it will help the organizers tremendously if you plan to take home any items you bring that aren’t picked up by others.

About the Congo Square Market:
CONGO SQUARE is an actual place in new Orleans. This sacred ground was first used by Houma Native Americans and later by slaves in the region, as a place to enjoy one day of freedom. African people used this as a place to maintain a connection to their true status as free people of Africa. Native Americans, as well as Europeans often joined in the celebration. Music, abolitionist organization, food, and dance were all intertwined to make this one day a week festival. Today, we recreate our own version of this splendor at Southside Community Center. We welcome our WHOLE COMMUNITY to come enjoy food, music and culture. The Market is a collaboration between Southside Community Center, Ithaca Youth Bureau’s Paul Scheurs Memorial Program, TC Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Whole Community Project, and the Youth Farm Project.

About Really Really Free Markets from Wikipedia:
“The Really, Really Free Market (RRFM) movement is a horizontally-organized collective of individuals who form a temporary market based on an alternative gift economy.[1] The RRFM movement aims to counteract capitalism in a proactive way. It holds as a major goal to build a community based on sharing resources, caring for one another and improving the collective lives of all. Markets often vary in character, but they generally offer both goods and services. Participants bring unneeded items and food, as well as skills and talents such as entertainment or haircuts. A RRFM usually takes place in an open community space such as a public park or community commons. In practice these are not free markets at all, as heavy restrictions are placed on the trade of goods designed to prevent a practical medium of exchange from arising.”

The Center for a New American Dream “helps Americans to reduce and shift their consumption to improve quality of life, protect the environment, and promote social justice.” Sounds like a great mission to us!

They have collaborated with one of our favorite sites, Shareable.net, to create a free PDF “Guide to Sharing” that you can download from their site. The guide is full of great tips and resources and even includes a couple of shout-outs to Share Tompkins on page 2.

Come participate in the Ithaca Free Barter Market, a new community based trade event, using Ithaca Hours as a base currency. The event will be a truly free market, allowing free barter between people, as well as using Ithaca Hours as the backbone to facilitate trade. We are asking participants to bring things they want to sell or trade as well as submit a lists of things you have to sell or want to buy so that we can compile them. If you have Ithaca Hours, please bring them to the event, if you don’t we will be providing micro loans as seed money. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email Lucas Bonnet at Whirlingdervishofrevolution@gmail.com

Looking for some interesting gifts for friends and family but not looking to break your bank account? Need to get rid of some stuff? Come to Ithaca College’s Take It Or Leave It sustainable gift swap, where you can do both of these things! The gift swap is brought to you by ICES (the IC Environmental Society), REMP (IC’s Resource and Environmental Management Program), and Share Tompkins.

Donate your gently used clothes, odds and ends, school supplies, kitchen supplies, books, movies, etc. to the gift swap and avoid sending it to the landfill. And rather than buying something new and increasing demand for extraction of natural resources, you may find something that one of your loved ones could really use or appreciate.

The event will be held Thursday, December 8th, from 8am – 5pm in Emerson Suite B in Campus Center at Ithaca College. Drop off your donations as early as 8am or any time throughout the day until 5pm, and browse for as long as you wish.

There will also be food (including vegan hot chocolate!), music, and fun such as face painting and hula hooping, and space to just take a break and kick back. We will also be raffling off sustainable items and gift certificates to local businesses, such as Finger Lakes ReUse and Collegetown Bagels.

This event is entirely free and open to the public. The more the merrier! For additional info and individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations contact Margaret Keating.

For the entry fee, we are accepting Ithaca Hours at twice their standard equivalence (typically $10 = 1 Hour), so bring your Hours!
The entry fee (to cover food & space) is:
$5 or a quarter Hour for SEEN members
$10 or a half Hour for non-members

Come learn about how new technologies are reviving traditional localized economies. Learn how you can leverage these systems for personal growth or to bolster your business.

The panel will be followed by a Community Market that draws from all four innovations and welcomes your own creative input. Let’s co-create a marketplace that builds community, enriches our lives, and strengthens the local economy.

SEEN members are also invited to table at the event and sell goods and services for which they accept Ithaca Hours. If you are a SEEN member interested in tabling, reserve your spot by emailing info@TheSEEN.org.

About The SEEN
The Sustainable Enterprise & Entrepreneur Network (The SEEN) is a growing community of businesses, organizations, and individuals working together to achieve ecological, social, and financial success. Members of The SEEN bring a Triple Bottom Line perspective to the Finger Lakes regional marketplace. Their commitment to sustainable practices helps them lower risk, increase customer loyalty, and generate sustainable profitability for their businesses. They contribute to the broader community by building a strong and resilient local economy and helping to safeguard our shared future.